Alabama, Notre Dame fans help build Miami community garden

MIAMI | It’s not just fun and games in the city of Miami, although it’s easy to lose oneself in the lush tropical landscape, blue skies, clear water and miles of world-class beaches.

By Aaron SuttlesSports Writer

MIAMI | It’s not just fun and games in the city of Miami, although it’s easy to lose oneself in the lush tropical landscape, blue skies, clear water and miles of world-class beaches.But look closely and you’ll find plights that plague any big city — crime, poverty and homelessness being chief among them.With that in mind, the universities of Alabama and Notre Dame wanted to leave more of a legacy than just occupying the city for one week for a football game. They opted to make a difference.The schools joined with Roots in the City, a south Florida nonprofit organization, to help beautify 2.5 acres in the historic Overton community in inner-city Miami. The project involved building plant beds for vegetable and botanical gardens, laying sod, clearing space for a parking lot and planting a rose garden.More than 400 volunteers turned up Sunday for an afternoon of sweat, fellowship and service.“Some volunteers are building the plant beds, some are painting them,” said Alabama SGA senator Ryan Flamerich. “They’re going to be used to grow fruits and vegetables all year round. We’re really proud of it. We hope that it can be sign that there are a lot of traditions at both universities and not all of them are football. Football is a great tradition, but we can do a lot of good things for the communities.”Three thousand cinder blocks were used to construct 10 plant beds, which were painted crimson and white and blue and gold, the team colors for the respective universities. The plant beds will house a variety of fruits and vegetables, including turnip greens, collard greens, mustard greens, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, corn, melons and beans that will be made available for a weekly farmers market.Marvin Dunn started Roots in the City while teaching at Florida International University. He wanted his students to learn the value of service.“I started bringing my students here to put a garden in as a way to give back to the community,” Dunn said. “That morphed into a vegetable garden from a botanical garden. Then we established grants so we could hire people from the community to take care of the garden. So now we have six full-time workers from the community. We get groups like this occasionally to come in and help.“It really adds an element of appreciation for folks who live here. Many of them are from the islands in Caribbean, and some folks are from Georgia, Alabama, north Florida. They know planting. They know vegetables. It brings a certain nostalgia to a lot of people.”The schools purchased the cinder blocks, and Roots in the City added 12 truckloads of potting soil and $1,200 worth of sod to help round out the project.Recent Notre Dame graduate Katie Callaghan and her parents took part in the altruistic effort.“I think wherever we are it’s important to be fully present and to have a full awareness of the atmosphere and the environment around us,” Callaghan said. “To just show up and go to a football game is to kind of be blind to the rest of the city. This is an opportunity to experience the rest of the city.“I think it’s a great thing that this was organized. It’s certainly something that the folks from the two different teams can do together, which I think is encouraging just to see people doing that.”Wayne Albertie helps run Camilia’s House, a nonprofit organization with a mission to help end chronic homelessness. He said Sunday’s event will have ripple effects on the community.“Oh man, it’s great,” Albertie said. “We love it, people coming and giving back. We always preach to the people we help that when you want to start changing lives, it’s about service. Always try to plug in and help other people by giving back. If you’re not giving back, then I don’t know what you’re doing.”

Reach Aaron Suttles at aaron.suttles@tuscaloosanews.com or at 205-722-0229.